ALEC

This week in “1869,” Cornell University Press Marketing Director Martyn Beeny interviews Gordon Lafer, author of The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time. Unbeknownst to most Americans, highly organized corporate lobbies have systematically infiltrated state legislatures to advance their agenda, which may or may not be aligned with the interests of the populace at large. Fully one quarter of U.S. state legislators are currently members of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and partner with corporate lobbyists to write state laws that affect policies regarding minimum wages, paid sick leave, gun laws, and other areas of concern to citizens.